REPORT: June 2006

Meet Jacqueline Callahan

NYSNA’s new Delegate Assembly representative in New Jersey

by Rolando Tomas Infante

Jacqueline Callahan, an RN from Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point, and the New York State Nurses Association’s (NYSNA) new Delegate Assembly representative for New Jersey, says it’s her mission to reach out to RNs who are unfamiliar with NYSNA and to the New Jersey RNs who are not yet organized.

Callahan submitted her name to fill an open Delegate Assembly seat during NYSNA’s 2005 convention in Atlantic City.

“In serving in every capacity for Shore Memorial’s executive board,” Callahan said, “I’ve learned much about the collective bargaining process. I can attest to the fact that many of my co-workers don’t know about their union or what it does for them.”

Callahan sees her role as an educator for her fellow nurses and plans to become a nurse educator.

She believes registered nurses are better served by unions that specialize in representing RNs. “Non-nursing unions lack the resources to provide fully for RNs and improve their work environment,” she said. “In unity there’s strength. Imagine if we were to organize most New Jersey RNs. We’d be a force to be reckoned with at the negotiating table.”

Callahan believes that the strength and reputation of NYSNA bolstered an already united RN staff at Shore Memorial, which led to the bargaining unit securing two good contracts since joining NYSNA in 2001.

In order to guarantee passage, Callahan spent many hours explaining the contract terms to her fellow RNs and helping them to learn to “read and understand their own contract.”

As a new Delegate Assembly representative, Callahan wants her fellow nurses to know that the issues that the RNs talk about among themselves are the same issues being discussed at the DA.

Callahan encourages her fellow RNs to become involved with their union. She said she will gladly act as a conduit of information between the New Jersey workforce and NYSNA.

“Jackie Callahan is contributing wonderfully to the Delegate Assembly,” said Barbara Conklin, associate director of NYSNA’s Economic and General Welfare program. “In her four short years as an RN, Jackie became a quick learner of our collective bargaining process and was an invaluable part of the team that secured NYSNA’s first contract in New Jersey.”